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If you are informed by your doctor or consultant that you have an asbestos related illness, you should obtain specialist legal advice as soon as possible, both about compensation and any other benefits that you may be entitled to.

If you have an asbestos related disease (other than pleural plaques) through your work, you may be entitled to Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit and you should contact the Benefits Agency as soon as possible. There may be further benefits that you are entitled to.

It is important that you ask your consultant to confirm what sort of asbestos disease you have as some conditions are more serious than others.

In personal injury cases, the legal time limit within which you are entitled to bring a claim is normally 3 years from the date of the accident. In cases involving diseases or illness such as asbestos related cases, the 3 year time limit normally commences from when you begin to have symptoms or the date of diagnosis. It is important that you consult a solicitor as soon as possible following a diagnosis in order to allow your solicitor to commence Court proceedings within the 3 year time limit.

It is extremely helpful if you are able to provide your solicitor with details of your employment history from leaving school to present together with details of where you suspect you were exposed to asbestos. In some asbestos cases, it is not necessary to identify every employer that exposed you to asbestos.

If you did not work with asbestos, there may be other sources of your exposure to asbestos such as a family member who worked with asbestos, environmental exposure such as where asbestos contaminates the air and soil or living close to an asbestos factory.

In order to succeed in a claim for personal injuries, you have to show that your employer was aware of the dangers of asbestos and failed to provide you with adequate warnings and/or proper protection. We have been able to establish that the dangers of asbestos were known from approximately the 1930's, although it was generally considered that a worker would need to be exposed to a large amount of asbestos dust before they were likely to be injured.

By the early 1930's, the link between inhalation of substantial amounts of asbestos dust and asbestosis had been made. By the 1950's, the link between inhalation of large quantities of asbestos and lung cancer was known. By the mid 1960's, the link between the relation of very small amount of asbestos and mesothelioma was established. The 1966 report of HM Chief Inspector of Factories stated that "The only safe course is to eliminate the escape of asbestos dust into the air".

A claim for compensation as a result of asbestos exposure may still succeed even if the company that exposed you to asbestos is no longer trading. We have a number of resources available to us which allow us to research companies and their insurer and if it is necessary to commence Court proceedings, the company can be brought back into existence.

If no employer or insurer can be located, you may be entitled to compensation under the Government Scheme - Pneumoconiosis etc (Workers' Compensation) Act 1979. However, you will only be entitled to an award under this Scheme if the Benefits Agency has awarded you Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit.

If the medical expert suspects there is a risk of you developing anything more serious, you are able to settle your claim for compensation on a "Provisional Damages" basis. This entitles you to return to Court in the future should one of the more serious conditions develop. It also remains possible to settle your claim on a final basis should you prefer. Settlement on a final basis is normally slightly higher than on a provisional basis.

If you believe that you might have a legal claim relating to Asbestos Claims , please complete the online enquiry form or call 0870 024 0558. Your enquiry will be forwarded to a solicitor who specialises in Asbestos Claims .

If you have any comments in relation to Asbestos Claims , please use the online discussion forum.